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    Matching the fabric and the stabilizer

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 0 comments, 5,229 views
    Original text by Marina Belova 
    Choosing a right stabilizer for a particular fabric is important for every embroiderer. If you want to know what a stabilizer is, what kinds of stabilizers are there and where they can be used, along with the other stuff, click here. 
    Wrong stabilizer plays has a great impact on the embroidery, for it is one of the reasons for various technical defects, which nobody wants. 
    Below are the recommendations on matching a particular type of fabric with a particular kind of stabilizer, which I found in various sources. You always need to have some kind of guide, if only a short one, which will give you a hint to where you stand and where to go from there. And then, to find a right kind of stabilizer for your type of fabric. 
    Obviously, one should choose a stabilizer according to the fabric qualities, such as: thickness, density, quality, type and so on. The basic rule goes as follows: the more tightly-woven and stable the fabric is, the lighter stabilizer it needs. And vice versa. In case you've found a right match you'll need only 1 layer of stabilizer (this is true in 99,9% of all cases). 
    The fabric
     
    The stabilizer
     
    Acrylic fabric
     
    Cut-away
     
    Acetate fabric
     
    Cut-away
     
    Velvet
     
    Tear-away adhesive stabilizer (Filmoplast) or heat-away stabilizer (Thermogaze)
     
    Corduroy
     
    Tear-away for the thick fabrics and cut-away for the thin ones
     
    Vynil
     
    Tear-away
     
    Felt
     
    Cut-away
     
    Gabardine
     
    Cut-away
     
    Gauzy fabric
     
    Dense water soluble for the backing and thin water soluble for the topping
     
    Jersey
     
    Cut-away
     
    Denim
     
    Tear-away or no stabilizer
     
    Chamois
     
    Cut-away for the thin fabrics and tear-away for thick ones
     
    Fake fur
     
    Tear-away for the backing and water-soluble film for the topping
     
    Damask
     
    Cut-away
     
    Leather
     
    Cut-away for the thin fabrics and tear-away for thick ones
     
    Lycra
     
    Spunbond
     
    Linen
     
    Cut-away with temporary spray adhesive
     
    Terry cloth
     
    Cut-away or tear-away for the backing and water-soluble film for the topping
     
    Muslin
     
    Cut-away with temporary spray adhesive
     
    Nylon
     
    Tear-away adhesive (Filmoplast), heat-away (Thermogaze) or high-quality tear-away stabilizer
     
    Voluminous knitwear
     
    Cut-away with temporary spray adhesive
     
    Organdy
     
    Cut-away adhesive
     
    Organza
     
    Water soluble or high-quality tear-away
     
    Sailcloth
     
    Cut-away for the thin fabrics and tear-away for thick ones
     
    Brocade
     
    Tear-away
     
    Percale
     
    Cut-away
     
    Pique
     
    Cut-away for the backing and water-soluble film for the topping
     
    Velour
     
    Tear-away adhesive (Filmoplast)
     
    Poplin
     
    Tear-away or cut-away, depending on the fabric thickness
     
    Sateen
     
    Cut-away
     
    Sateen
     
    Cut-away with temporary spray adhesive or tear-away adhesive (Filmoplast)
     
    Spandex
     
    Cut-away with temporary spray adhesive or tear-away adhesive (Filmoplast), spunbond
     
    Woolen cloth
     
    Cut-away
     
    Tweed
     
    Cut-away
     
    Knitwear (T-shirts)
     
    Cut-away, tear-away or spunbond, depending on the quality of knitted fabric
     
    Flannel
     
    Cut-away
     
    Fleece
     
    Cut-away
     
    Canvas
     
    Tear-away or no stabilizer
     
    Silk
     
    Tear-away
     
    Chiffon
     
    Tear-away
     

    I want to remind everyone that the aforementioned matches are the basic recommendations and not the rules. 
    What is also interesting is that a stabilizer is often replaced with other, cheaper, materials for cost reasons — the means the manufacturers strictly advise against (naturally). For example, you may see a stabilizer replaced with the printing paper, the embroidery spunbond with the building one, and water-soluble film with polyethylene. There is a lot of information about it on the Web. 
    I decided to check if water soluble film replacement was at all possible. You can read about this experiment here. 

    Why does the embroidery pull and lose its shape?

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 0 comments, 4,164 views
    Original text by Marina Belova 
    I've already written about the various defects in machine embroidery, but today I want to dwell on these illustrative examples of the particular defects known as puckering of the embroidery and pulling of the fabric: 
    01 

    02 

    03 

    I'd like to remind everyone that the reasons for getting such a discouraging result are these several factors: 
    The design. A multi-layered design of high density and stitch count, with lots of details and fill pattern at various angles, is one of the main reasons for puckering of both the embroidery and the fabric around it. 
    The designs of high density warp the embroidery and the fabric around because we artificially add threads to the already existing fibers, which are thus moved apart and become distorted. Different stitch angles and different stitch lengths lead to the multi-directional push and pull distortion, which is more difficult to correct by the push and pull compensation. It is therefore considered that the designs with unidirectional stitches (for example, horizontal ones) and simple outlines are embroidered better that the others. 
    The fabric. The less stable the fabric is, the more prone to distortion it will be. 
    Everything seems to be clear: don't break these rules, and the embroidery will look wonderful. But let's see what rules I've broken in the past to achieve the results I've achieved, falling into the familiar traps. The obvious mistakes in digitizing and embroidery are marked red: 
    Factors

    1

    2

    3

    The design

    high-quality cutwork design of low density

    design of high density, with superfluous understitching

    design of high density

    The fabric

    Thin and stretchy suiting cloth

    knitwear pique

    T-shirt knitwear

    Stabilizer

    not used

    used

    used

    Speed embroidery

    700 rpm

    700 rpm

    700 rpm

    Tension

    standard

    standard

    standard

    Thread

    rayon

    polyester

    polyester

    Needle

    #70

    #70-75

    #70-75

    Hooping

    correctly framed was correct, but the frame was too big for the design

    the fabric was not hooped, just sprayed with temporary spray adhesive and stuck onto the stabilizer

    the fabric was not hooped, just sprayed with temporary spray adhesive and stuck onto the stabilizer

    Summary: if I tried to stabilize the fabric in any way, the result would be much better. To say nothing about finding the design parameters that would be good for this type of fabric. 
    Apart from the factors specified, which directly influence the embroidery process, a design might be severely distorted after washing or dry-cleaning, however good it looks right after the embroidery. Sadly, the manufacturers don't take this into account. 
    I've often seen embroidery results (including mine) that looked horrible after the washing: towels, bed linen, clothes and other items made of various textiles. Not always could they be returned to a more or less good-looking shape. 
    How to conquer it? Frankly, I don't know. This defect can be partly removed by ironing. But only in case the pull is a very light one. I've also read many times in various sources that the best aid in preventing the post-embroidery distortion is washing and pressing the item prior to the embroidery But it is not always possible, is it? Therefore, the best way of avoiding such a nuisance and keeping the shape of the embroidery is using a dense cut-away stabilizer. Or am I wrong? 

    Embroidering lace

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 2 comments, 5,592 views
    Original text by Marina Belova 
    In my opinion, FSL is one of the most popular things in machine embroidery. Especially judging from the all the hype on the forums and in numerous discussions: what, where and how to embroider. Read it — and you'll think that it is immensely complex, and not within the scope of anyone's ability. 
    Today I managed to make a few samples with different stabilizers at last, in order to find out whether it was really so difficult and whether one needed special skills for it. 
    I chose 3 designs for my experiment. I deliberately made them different in style. 
    The first design was from Zundt. The size was not big — 9.7х9.7 cm. But the stitch count was impressive — 28500. 

    The second design was from Adorable Ideas. The size, too, was not large, 8х8, and the stitch count was 12200. 

    The third design was also from Adorable Ideas. The size, again, was not too big, 10.3х10.4 cm, and the stitch count was 12500. 

    These designs got into my hands as the result of a strange accident. I ordered some CD's from the manufacturer, they got the whole thing mixed up and sent me these designs instead. Sending them back would cost a bundle. So I kept them; now they gather dust on my shelf. I became the owner of designs I didn't need. Every CD contains from 53 to 55 designs in various formats. Each one of them is in the *.emb format that allows making changes. Even our Western colleagues make mistakes sometimes. 
    But two of those designs came in handy. 
    I chose 3 stabilizers for my backing: 
    Gunold Solvy 80 (40 microns) water-soluble film  Gunold Solvy Fabric (40 g/m2) water-soluble stabilizer  Gunold Thermogaze — a heat-away stabilizer  I decided to use one layer of each. You won't know anything until you embroider. 
    I used an ordinary polyester Fufu's as the upper thread. The bobbin thread remained standard. 
    The needle was standard, too: #70 with SES needlepoint. 
    So I hooped the film and decided to embroider the design that had the highest stitch count and density. This stabilizer seemed to me the most reliable of all. 

    I embroidered the entire design on the film, and almost nothing was cut out (except in 2 places). Nothing was shifted at all. 

    Therefore, even one of this film can be used. 
    The only things I did not like about this design were the high stitch count and the abundance of the short stitches. Thread breakage occurred exactly on these short stitches, which did not happen when embroidering the other designs with the same threads. In my opinion, this design should be scaled before embroidery without stitch recounting. At least by 5%. 
    I decided to use water-soluble stabilizer for the second design, the most open-worked of all three, considering it to be the flimsiest. It stretched well in one direction, which I didn't at all like, and I thought that there would be shifting. 

    This is the ready design: nothing has shifted or lost because of the cutting. Everything came out splendid. 

    Thermogaze was third in the line, and it had issued a strange crackling noise when hooping, but I did not notice any tearing. 

    The third design was embroidered wonderfully. Though I thought that the needle would damage it. 

    When I unhooped it, I immediately saw what that crackling noise that I heard during the embroidery hoop meant — the thermogaze between the rings tore while hooping. That reminds me that I should be more careful while hooping. 

    Now it's time to remove the stabilizers. 
    I put the water soluble materials into the bowl filled with warm water and rinsed carefully. 
    Water-soluble stabilizer washed off quickly and without traces — this is cutwork, after all. 

    As for the film, it required some effort. The design was dense, and the film took a long time to solve. 

    But neither first nor the second lace didn't lose it shape after having been washed and dried. 

    Now it was the turn of the last of the lace samples, embroidered on thermogaze. 
    I put it between the 2 layers of thermogaze and turned the temperature of the iron to the maximum. Then I just left the iron where the lace was.
    For about one minute and a half, I think. 

    Then I decided to see what happened. The thermogaze became darker. I touched it slightly, and it broke instantly. 

    I took the lace and began to crumple it — the thermogaze easily came off and crumbled. The lace became clean and extremely soft to the touch. 
    This is what was left of thermogaze: 

    This piece of lace maintained its shape, too. 

    Frankly speaking, I liked thermogaze most of all — there was less trouble with removing it. 
    There is nothing difficult in embroidering items like these ones. I think that the whole matter of whether the result will be satisfactory or not depends only on the design quality. 
    Of course, I cannot claim the integrity of the test. I should have embroidered one design with each stabilizer, and compare them after that. But now, when the embroidery is completed, I think that I would get good results anyway. 

    Machine embroidery with a woolen thread: in search for ideas

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 1 comment, 11,317 views
    Original text by Marina Belova 
    I'm currently raking my brains about embroidery with a woolen thread, or, to be more precise, with an acrylic one — I want to embroider a very simple design on a pillow, black on the white-and-gold background. It will match the wallpaper and sofa in my room. Besides, if you embroider on wool with a woolen thread, the pillow will be agreeable to the touch, which is nice. Sadly, there is little information on embroidery with this type of thread, except the most basic one.
    It's not that I do not understand how to use it, but I still want to see how it looks in reality. Suddenly I have come across the Husqvarna Handlook Needlework design collection, which is imitating hand embroidery with woolen threads. The photos from this collection are very inspiring — they prompt you to try and embroider all of this yourself. And besides, it is always good for the brain to scrutinize someone else's design from every angle. 
    So I went through their files: took measures, counted stitched, chose a design and tried to create something like that myself. Judging from what I've seen, I've figured out that a design like this is based on a very simple principle — use of the motif stitches and satin stitches. The motif stitching, if I got it right, should resemble something like this: 

    I would never imagine anything like it for the woolen thread. All the basic principles of digitizing, like making longer stitches for thicker threads, are swept away by the length of connector stitches, which Husqvarna digitizers successfully use in their work. To see these nuances you need to study the works of other people, for there is always someone who knows more than you. I think I've already expanded this topic. 
    This is how my design looks: 

    My first sample with 1.5 mm long connector stitches turned out to be rather dense: 

    I reduced the density by increasing the connector stitch length to 2 mm, and got a much softer result: 

    It doesn't look very good, of course, but now it's clear that this technique requires another, simpler design and repeating of satin stitches several times at the same place is definitely unnecessary. I created a design: 

    Here it is already embroidered: 

    The result in not that bad, the only thing that disturbs me is that the connector stitches are visible between the repeating stitches, creating a so-called beaded border: But with a right type of the design everything will be good. Or you can hide this border by changing the angle of the connector stitches in relation to the next row of repeating stitches. But in this case the stitches should be done by hand, and I don't like the idea of it. 
    So I decided to return to the basics of the technique I set out to imitate. Having opened a book, I was surprised to see that the embroidery with woolen threads looks exactly the same as an ordinary one — satin stitches, running stitches, other decorative elements that are not available in machine embroidery. Although there is a similar stitch. It is called the Fly Stitch and is mostly used for small leaves. Below is the example taken from Trish Burr's book called Crewel and Surface Embroidery: 

    And then I got an idea of using 3 or 5 layers of satin stitches of low-density instead of motif stitches so that to avoid this border. For is will not make all the elements look better. 
    In order to try I created a design with 3 layers of stitches of 1.5 mm density: 

    Here's the sample — columns look monolithic. 

    I think that if one lowers density even more, to 2 mm, it will be a good imitation of hand embroidery. But the "border" technique will do for several kinds of designs. 
    Perhaps, someone will share their thoughts on embroidery with woolen threads? So we would not be reinventing the wheel. 
    Besides, today I found out that the tension of the acrylic thread should be increased. There won't be any breakages: everything looks splendid.
    But loose tensioning leads to "bird nesting". 
     

    Basic rules of hooping

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 2 comments, 5,552 views
    Original text by Marina Belova 
    Correct hooping and rightly chosen underlay — these are the two most important things that contribute to the quality of the embroidery. My own experience tells me that however good the embroidery design is, hooping will be a most crucial aspect. The main function of hooping is to hold both the fabric and the stabilizer pulled tight during the embroidery. What is the difficulty, one would think, in securing both the fabric and stabilizer between the two rings of the hoop, without displacing either one of them? 
    There is a vast amount of materials covering various nuances of hooping on the Web. Even I have already written about embroidery without hooping and also about the testing of the quality of the hooping. But no matter how much information there is on the subject, the question remains open, because there is a set of hooping tricks for every type of the fabric. Not to mention lots of interesting hooping devices (hoop station, hooping aid device, magnetic holding system, hooping fixture and so on). that were invented to aid the embroiderer. The subject of framing calls for a separate article. 
    Nevertheless, here are my two cents on how to hoop the fabric (or item). I will begin with the most basic rules. 
    There are several rules of manual hooping known to everyone and, therefore, banal, that should nevertheless be obeyed: 
    Always mark your item (draw dots or lines, along which your embroidery will be situated).  Find the right type of stabilizer that goes with that particular kind of fabric.  A sheet of stabilizer should slightly outsize the hoop.  Choosing the hoop size, pick the one that is suitable for this particular design, the smallest one possible. Round hoops are considered the best. And in case they are made of wood, and not plastic, even better.  Don't forget to trace the outline before starting the embroidery, making sure that there is enough space for the presser foot so that it will not touch the hoop.  Always hoop the fabric together with the stabilizer.  Use a stabilizer with an adhesive side or a temporary spray adhesive whenever possible. This will prevent the stabilizer from shifting in the hoop, and from pulling the fabric too tight in case it is very stretchy.  Adjust the tension according to the fabric thickness by turning the screw (or sometimes a wheel; it's not the same with different hoops) before hooping.  One should hoop the fabric on a flat surface. This sounds so obvious, but it is true.  The inner and outer rings should fit without effort, but not too easily. The fabric should be tight, but not stretched in the hoop, and the fibers should not be distorted. The alignment marks on the hoop and the fabric should match. As for the need to tug the fabric in the hoop, the question remains open for the debate. I've seen a huge variety of opinions on the subject, and they differ from each other greatly. I think it depends on the type of fabric used, and also on your experience.  Do not adjust the screw on the outer ring after hooping. It may damage the fibers. And it will result in pulling the fabric around the screw, which may have the impact on the quality of the embroidery.  Test the quality of the hooping. If you don't like the result, unhoop and start all over again, beginning with the fitting of the rings.  Digitize and stitch additional basting stitches. They will hold the fabric and the stabilizer together. If the fabric allows that, of course.  In order to avoid hoop marks (also known as hoop burn), you may wrap the hoop in the soft fabric or place an extra material under the outer hoop with the window the size of the design in it. Read more about wrapping of the hoops, adjusting the gap and other details in my article called "Hooping minutiae".  One should remember that the manual hooping does not tolerate any haste, requires sufficient skill, but can be trained to perfection with the right amount of practice. This article will tell you how to make the hooping easier with the help of hooping devices that can be made by everyone. 

    Linking the parts of a design

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 0 comments, 2,540 views
    Original text by Marina Belova 
    There were times when lining up the parts of a big design was a sealed book to me. Many lances were broken over this seal. But I'll relate the facts as they actually happened. 
    For example, even a beginner can align the design on the cem-135 machine. It's all due to its magic ability to rotate the designs by a required angle in accordance with the alignment marks. Which I successfully employed in my first embroidery design. It was no less than a pillow with initials and a wide border along the perimeter. 
    But after our department got a commercial eight-head embroidery machine, life instantly became complicated. 
    Everything was difficult, from hooping to the need to hit the right place with a needle. We learned bit by bit, and something the result was satisfactory, sometimes — not at all. 
    But I really understood how to align machine embroidery designs only after I left to work for the rival company. Then I learned to align the designs on single-head embroidery machines that had small frames. Their biggest frame then allowed to embroider a design about 33х52 cm. 
    After someone shows you how to do the alignment, all you need is skill and a bit of contemplation. Hats off to my previous employer for having demonstrated me how to create and embroider designs that require rehooping. 
    You can do miracles on single-head embroidery machines. There image size does not matter — you just split it into however more large pieces and hoop. 
    The only thing is that embroidering curtains or large tablecloths requires a lot of time and is rather tiresome. But the pull is less in such a small frame. I realized this when I moved to the bigger frame. 
    The alignment process on single-head machines was described well over ten times: 
    Mark the fabric with lines or dots, whichever ones you prefer, to understand, where the embroidery will be located.  Split the file, leaving alignment marks, which will help you to match the pieces after rehooping. You may encounter alignments crosses, Z-stitches and simple alignment stitches of various shapes. For example, the alignment stitch may look as the red one on the photo below. Embroider the first piece of the design  Rehoop according to the alignment chart so that the alignment stitch was located within the hoop.  Load the next file.  First, you stitch the alignment stitch, which, in the case of the correct hooping, should correspond with the alignment stitch in the previous piece. 
    This is not difficult at all, but requires some skill and practice. 
    Understanding that I can move mountains on my embroidery machine lifted my spirits, made me feel self-assured and proud of myself. At this very point, my conceit was deflated by the wonderful ZSK embroidery machine. 
    After having worked for the rival company, I returned to the machine with a devil-may-care attitude. But it turned out that I had yet to cover a lot of ground, starting from the very basic things like using the long frame. The thing is that you should frame the fabric in such a way that it will not be distorted, otherwise, curtains and curtain laces, tablecloths, and the other things like that can go directly into the garbage can. 
    I learned to hoop about 40 attempts after. Only then I began to "sense" the fabric. 
    But framing was not the hardest thing of all on this machine. Instead — a strange thing to say — a large number of heads each one covering a very small embroidery area presented the biggest problem. 
    The small size of the embroidery area demands the need for framing with extreme care in order to align the new part of the embroidery with the previous one so that they match. 
    There is no 2 or 3 cm allowance for hoop shifting in order to match the alignment stitches here, like on single-head embroidery machines. For there are rapports (that I used to dream of in the past), which are almost of the same width as the embroidery area and therefore cannot be moved. 1-2 mm, maybe, but not more. 
    In other words, even if the hooping went wrong, I could not move the frame a couple of cm left or right to hit the alignment mark, otherwise the rapports could not be embroidered, for they were 40 cm wide. That's because if I shifted the frame for 2 cm to either side, there would be only 38 left. I cannot even do the outline, for my design will not fit the embroidery area. 
    And then it dawned upon me, how important it was to plan the future design from the technical standpoint so that it would be easier to align the parts of the complex designs. The technical moments include distributing the embroidery areas between the heads and planning the positioning of the alignment marks prior to the design being created, let alone digitized. 
    But the more I embroider, the more I understand why all the well-known Western manufacturers do not create such a fuss of the embroidery machines as we do here in Russia. Moreover, they will never make much of those machines that are not fit for embroidering such designs.
    Because there are other kinds of equipment for this purpose, and have been for a long time now. Making this kind of embroidery is unprofitable.
    For the simple reason of their high cost. You cannot make much money on it. 
    This is Russian "kitchen-table-effort". This is all just a bravado, an attempt to show that we are all Koulibins or Cross-eyed Leftys from Tula here. 
    But, how it strength your brain to create such a design! 
    Read here how to join the parts of a simple design together. 

    Imitating the Buratto technique with the help of the pulled thread technique

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 0 comments, 3,604 views
    Original text by Marina Belova 
    At last, I put my hands on the pulled thread embroidery. Pulled thread technique intrigues me because you can help you achieve the effect of the hand embroidery. For example, these medallions used to decorate the edges of linen towels, tablecloths, pillows and other things in the household.
    There were much more embroidered things in the past than there are nowadays: 

    The photo was taken from a book by Marsha L. Manchester called Antique Linens from the kitchen to the boudoir. 
    If you replace the Buratto technique, used for creating the background on the medallion, with the pulled thread work, it can make a wonderful present: "vintage" kitchen towels. You just need to learn to make Swiss lace in such a way that it would gather the fabric correctly. 
    I chose this design with a little kitchen hand for my sample, but decided to discard the flowers for now:

    I decided to create the background motif stitch by myself, and with that purpose I drew this star and saved it as a motif in the editor: 

    I digitized the entire design after that: 

    I had two colors in the file because the background (green) required a very thick needle, and there are no wing needles for commercial embroidery machines. I set #110. The rest of the design (red) was embroidered with the standard needle. 
    Little was left — to choose the right motif stitch size in the pattern and to find the right thread, which would gather the fabric as needed. 
    I embroidered the first sample with #30 cotton thread. The size of the motif stitch (the star) was 5 mm. I used no stabilizer. The fabric was not starched. I just hooped it, although I've seen the recommendations to use some kind of stabilizer (a tearaway or a water soluble one) for this kind of embroidery. This is what I got: 

    Thick cotton thread looks rather crude against the background, though it gathers the fabric correctly, making visible holes: Besides, the motif stitch seemed too high. 
    Therefore, I decided to change the background thread for the ordinary white polyester and leave the #30 cotton thread for the other elements. I used a very thin Guttermann #150 for the background. I often replace my bobbin thread with it. I changed the height of the gathering star to 4 mm so that the number of holes in the fabric increased. 
    The stitch count is rather high (13900) for such a 12.5x12,5 cm design. But it was worth it: 

    I increased the background thread tension greatly — screwed the nobs until tight, in order to gather the fabric more. But even with no stabilizer, the embroidery in this technique gives perfect results — nothing shifts, all the objects are where they should be. 
    The wrong side of embroidery is very neat, which brings me joy: 

    In my opinion, the motif stitch size should be lowered to 3-3.5 mm, so that the background of the medallion will look delicate. Especially if you create the interesting motif stitch and not a plain star. Everything was embroidered with very thin threads. If you use threads without luster on a good linen fabric of middle thickness, you may get a marvelous thing indeed, especially if you add some decorations apart from the motif stitching. 
    And the most important thing is that the design is very simple, without any special techniques or effects, except for the openwork. This means any embroiderer can do it, even a beginner. 

    An attempt at creating the pulled thread embroidery

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 0 comments, 4,465 views
    Original text by Marina Belova 
    Pulled thread embroidery (also called Dresden work) is one of the most popular kinds of openwork. You create the openwork by pulling the fibers of the fabric in a certain order. You will get a netting with small holes as the result. The motif stitches form the basis for the netting. It is better to embroider on the fabrics with easily separated fibers (loosely spun linen, batiste, muslin, organdy etc. Even calico will be good). 
    It is said that this method can be used for almost any elements: flowers, leaves, wings of the insects, various enclosed areas. I think that this technique can mainly be used for decorating napkins, blouses, creating lace edgings and so on. 
    Of course, not all types of motif stitches are suitable for Dresden wrk. The main principle of creating the netting should be based on the following rules: in order for the fabric to gather, it is necessary that the stitches that form the design are repeated at least twice. These may be classic squares, diamonds, zigzags, stars etc. This repetition will allow for the fibers to gather even more, and a hole will appear where the needle pierced the fabric. I think that the suitable motif stitch can be found without effort in any embroidery editor. Or I will have to create the motif stitching myself. The only trouble is to find the motif of a suitable size that will gather the fabric. But this is what the test runs are for. 
    In commercial machine embroidery, the needles used for pulled thread embroidery are often thicker than necessary for the particular type of thread (I've heard the recommendations to use #100-120 needles with the ordinary type threads). In is necessary for the visible holes to appear in the fabric. The only thing that is not clear is how the thick thread will work with the needle thicker than needed. As usual, you won't know until you try. 
    As for the sewing and embroidery machines, it is better to use special winged needles that have flanges on both sides, which allow to substantially widen the holes. 
    I've read many times that you don't need a stabilizer for that kind of embroidery because the fabrics are mostly transparent. But I still have my reservations about this. After all, there may be ordinary kind of embroidery besides the puled thread work, and this embroidery will add to the pull. It is then possible that the stabilizer should be placed under the hoop after the pulled thread embroidery is completed. 
    I've more than once seen the recommendations to starch the fabric before embroidery. Perhaps, it is needed to make the holes more visible.
    Obviously, the thread tension needs proper adjustment, too. In my opinion, if you make it tighter, the pull will be greater, and you will get slightly wider holes as the result. Which is our goal. 
    Thread thickness and quality do not matter if I understand correctly. I'll just have to find the suitable ones by trial and error. 
    In theory, everything seems very simple (as it usually does). 
    Here is the result of my attempts to create something resembling the pulled thread embroidery in the flower cup: 

    For the flower cup, I picked a #80 needle and #30 thread. I used the standard polyester thread for the rest. I didn't use the starch because my fabric is dry and coarse enough. Both and warp and weft threads are easily separated. Which you can easily see in the photo. 
    Well... I have to practice again and again — not very satisfactory holes indeed. I am falling under the impression that the ordinary flat embroidery causes holes much bigger in size. Though I tried to create a motif stitching in which every stitch would be repeated twice, as suggested. Perhaps, 2 runs are not enough. I'll go and mull it over. I think that I should consider adding more color to the netting. 
    P.S. You can read the next chapter here. 

    Imitating long-and-short stitch in machine embroidery

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 1 comment, 9,905 views
    Original text by: Marina Belova 
    I have once written the theory of imitating the long-and-short stitch technique, which is used in hand embroidery. Today I will show you what comes of it. 
    Unfortunately, I do not have the fabric more suitable for such technique — organdy or batiste, for example. But I will use what is available — calico. It is transparent enough to suit my goals. 
    I decided against creating of the complex design, because you don't need one for testing. So I created a very simple flower pattern in order to use two colors for shading — green for the leaves and red for the petals: 

    In the original patterns created by the author of this technique, I didn't find any understitching, just the runs between different sections inside the intricate outlines. When I created my design, I suddenly got an idea to use the edge run as the underlay for the fills in order to outline the objects. It later turned out that I was right in using them: 

    My design that will imitate long-and-short stitch technique looks like this: the stitches on the right side of the fabric are hidden at the distance of approximately 1.5 mm within the outline. they lie inside the underlay, created by edge runs. The fill density is 0.8 mm. 
    In order to put my idea into action I hooped the water soluble stabilizer: 

    Then I embroidered all the fills right on it (they will show through the fabric under the flowers and leaves): 

    After that, the machine made a stop and I, having sprayed the fabric with temporary spray adhesive, stuck it directly onto the water soluble stabilizer: 

    I started the machine again, embroidered all the remaining parts of the design — the outlines of the leaves, flowers, and the flower cups.
    Took the hoop off and turned embroidery the wrong side up. The result was not so bad — the outline that stitched filling to the fabric, lay inside the filled areas: 

    With one exception: perhaps, the stitch ran too near the edge:

    But the filled area didn't fall to pieces, for it was secured by the understitching, which I was right to have inserted. Without it, the filling would fall into pieces. It means that the outlining stitch is necessary. You also need to pay more attention to the distance between the outlining stitch and the edge run. And everything will be just fine. 
    All that is left is to give the item a trial by washing as I need to remove the water soluble film anyway: 

    I creased the fabric with all my might, and the embroidery did not fall into pieces, which is good. Below is how it looks after the pressing: 

    Summary: this technique works, but does not look as neat as hand embroidery of a high quality. But frankly speaking, I'm unable to see the dance of the shadows or nuances that speak of beauty in it. In concerns both the hand and the machine embroidery.

    Seeking for 3D Puff replacement 3

    By Irina, in Machine embroidery materials and technology, , 0 comments, 3,139 views
    Original text by: Marina Belova 
    I've already written about my attempt to find a replacement for the water soluble film, but today I decided to seek for a 3D Puff alternative in case there it will be unavailable. 
    My starting point was the concept of "embroidery on cardboard", which exists in the hand embroidery. On this assumption, I began to replace 3D Puff with its paper equivalents, which happened to be at hand. 
    I created a design according to the same principles that regulate the embroidery on 3D Puff. The only thing that differs here is that first, the underlay for the whole object is embroidered, then the machine makes a stop to allow me to remove the paper leftovers, and only after that comes the finishing layer of satin stitches. 

    First, I took the dense (95 g) tearaway stabilizer leftovers, which I usually use for the chevrons. I folded it in 4 layers and put into the hoop: 

    Having embroidered the first layer of underlay, I tried to tear off the stabilizer. It didn't tear easily, leaving fibers behind — they were not very long, but yet visible, and they stuck out in all directions. From all appearances, in case of using paper the density of the underlay is not sufficient for a neat tearaway line: 

    The finishing satin stitch layer did not cover them completely: 

    But the embroidery was puffy enough. These fibers may be easily singed with a lighter. 
    After this attempt, I remembered that I had a tearaway paper stabilizer (60 g), which tears neatly along the perimeter of the embroidery, and I thought that it might be appropriate. I folded it in 5 layers: 

    Embroidered the underlay: 

    The stabilizer tore off easily. But instead of the fibers rather big pieces of paper were left: 

    The finishing layer of satin stitches did not really cover those bits and the white paper showed in between the stitches. I did not manage to fix it, for on this kind of paper a lighter cannot be used: 

    But how puffy the embroidery is! 

    When embroidering on this perforated stabilizer, I got an idea to use paper napkins, for their textures are very similar to each other. And the napkins tear so easily! So I decided to embroider on them: 

    It was a very unfortunate experiment — tearing them off required considerable effort, and there were very ugly pieces left: 

    The finishing layer of satin stitches covered them rather badly, and the leftovers stuck out in all directions: 

    After this failure I found a piece packaging board (left from a T-shirt) and decided to put it to a test: 

    This is how it looks with understitching: 

    The cardboard tears off rather neatly leaving very small pieces behind: 

    These pieces are easily covered by the finishing layer of stitches; nothing sticks out and satin columns look wonderful: 

    The summary is as follows: You can replace 3D Puff with other materials. But you will have to test them all and find the right stitch parameters for digitizing. For me, the ordinary cardboard turned out to be the best of all. It is quite possible to embroider on it, even if you hoop 2 layers of it for additional puffiness. But you'll have to use a thicker needle, no less than #80. Of course, not any cardboard is good, you'll have to find one that tears easily, but I was lucky: mine did. But if you don't have the cardboard, you can choose something else from the materials readily available. Using stabilizer for 3D embroidery is a bit harder, with all these pieces and yarns, but you can manage without 3D Puff anyway. 
    P.S. Two of my first attempts to find an alternative for 3D Puff can be found here and here.

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